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Monthly Archives: September 2012

We are happy to announce that Orymu Graphic Arts will attend the Frankfurt book fair the 10th and 11th October 2012. (The world’s largest trade fair for books).

This will be a great opportunity to get to know the publishing arena worldwide!

A little bit of the fair history:

The first book fair was held in Frankfurt not many years after the first book came off of Gutenberg´s press in Mainz close to Frankfurt, around 1440. References to the Frankfurter Messe date back to 1150. According to some sources, book trade fairs have been held in Frankfurt since 1478 and have long been of international importance. In his book, The History of the Frankfurt Book Fair, author Peter Weidhaas (a former director of the fair, from 1975 – 2000), writes that King Henry VIII sent Sir Thomas Bodley as his personal emissary to the Frankfurt Book Fair to purchase books for the new library at Oxford University.

Representatives from book publishing and multimedia companies from all over the world come to the Frankfurt Book Fair in order to negotiate international publishing rights and licensing fees. For five days more than 7,000 exhibitors from over 100 countries and more than 286,000 visitors take part. The Frankfurt Book Fair is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for international deals and trading!

The Frankfurt Book Fair has a tradition that spans over more than 500 years. Until the end of the 17th century, it was the most important book fair in Europe.

It is a critical marketing event for the launching of books. In 2006, more than 11,000 journalists from 66 countries reported on the fair which brought together 7,272 individual exhibitors from 113 countries, and more than 183,000 trade visitors. In 2009, there were 7,314 individual exhibitors from some 100 countries, presenting over 400,000 books. Some 300,000 visitors attended the fair.

Since 1976, a guest of honour, or a focus of interest is named for the fair. A special exhibition hall is set up for the guest country, and the major publishing houses are present at the fair.

The guest of honour for this year 2012 is NEW ZEALAND.

The Guest of Honour in 2009 was China, stirring a controversy about the country’s record on human rights.

Some other choices aroused criticism and controversy. The 2007 fair attracted criticism from both the Spanish and German media. German news magazine Der Spiegel described it as “closed-minded” for its policy of not including the many Catalans who write in Spanish in its definition of Catalan literature. The decision to exclude any element of “Spanishness”, defined as literature exclusively done in Spanish, from the fair was made in spite of the fact that the Spanish government contributed more than 6 million Euros towards the cost of the fair.

A few dates…:

1150

First official mention of the Frankfurt fair (Autumn fair).

1157

A royal certificate historically substantiates the existence of the Frankfurt fair.

1240

Frederick II guarantees visitors of the Frankfurt fair safe passage to and from Frankfurt.This marks the beginning of Frankfurt´s tradition as an international trade fair centre.One year later, official tax documentation specifies Frankfurt as the German Empire´s Most profitable city.

1157

A royal certificate historically substantiates the existence of the Frankfurt fair

1157

A royal certificate historically substantiates the existence of the Frankfurt fair.

1478

Book merchants make their first appearance at the Frankfurt fair. In the decades to come, Frankfurt´sReputation and standing as Germany´s premier centre of trade continues to grow. Thousands flock to the annual fairs to sell and buy expensive consumer goods such as books, weaponry, fabrics,Herbs and spices; the first cashless payments are transacted.

There are many wrong in ideas on paper, trees and forests, many inaccurate and misleading environmental statements.

Generally we don’t know that European Forests are still growing at a rate of 1.5 million football pitches every year.

Following some facts:

The growth of European forests is confirmed in the MCPFE (Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe) State of Europe’s Forests 2011 report which provides a comprehensive, up-to-date description of the status and trends of forests and forest management in Europe.

17 million hectares of forest growth has been achieved over the last 20 years, a rate which has been calculated as equivalent to 1.5 million football pitches every year.

In the same period 870 million tonnes of CO2 have been removed by European forest; equivalent to about 10% of the Greenhouse Gas emissions.

This is why we tend to think that eBooks are more environmental friendly then printed books but what we don’t know is that Paper industry is a relatively small user of wood. Of the wood extracted from the world’s forests, 53% is used for energy production, 28% is used by sawmills, and around 11% is used directly by the paper industry

Even in today’s digital age many young people states that reading printed text is still more comfortable than reading from a screen but undoubtedly eBooks is recognized as being more environmental as printed books and this is why, among other reasons EBook use is certainly on the rise.

Using Apple’s own published environmental report regarding the iPad Green Press Initiative determined that an I Pad is responsible for 130 kg (287 lbs) of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over its average lifetime. The average printed book, by contrast, is responsible for only 8.85 lbs.

Single e-book has 70 times the impact of a printed book on human health, owing to particulate matter resulting from energy use and the book’s production

Books can be recycled, E-readers can also be recycled, but it’s a more difficult process.

We guess therefore that both ebooks and printed books have still a long way to coexist together….